Registered Replication Report: Schooler and Engstler-Schooler (1990)

Daniel J. Simons*, V. K. Alogna, M. K. Attaya, P. Aucoin, Bahník, S. Birch, A. R. Birt, B. H. Bornstein, S. Bouwmeester, M. A. Brandimonte, C. Brown, K. Buswell, C. Carlson, M. Carlson, S. Chu, A. Cislak, M. Colarusso, M. F. Colloff, K. S. Dellapaolera, J. F. DelvenneA. Di Domenico, A. Drummond, G. Echterhoff, J. E. Edlund, C. M. Eggleston, B. Fairfield, G. Franco, F. Gabbert, B. W. Gamblin, M. Garry, R. Gentry, E. A. Gilbert, D. L. Greenberg, J. Halberstadt, L. Hall, P. J.B. Hancock, D. Hirsch, G. Holt, J. C. Jackson, J. Jong, A. Kehn, C. Koch, R. Kopietz, U. Körner, M. A. Kunar, C. K. Lai, S. R.H. Langton, F. P. Leite, N. Mammarella, J. E. Marsh, K. A. McConnaughy, S. McCoy, A. H. McIntyre, C. A. Meissner, R. B. Michael, A. A. Mitchell, M. Mugayar-Baldocchi, R. Musselman, C. Ng, A. L. Nichols, N. L. Nunez, M. A. Palmer, J. E. Pappagianopoulos, M. S. Petro, C. R. Poirier, E. Portch, M. Rainsford, A. Rancourt, C. Romig, E. Rubínová, M. Sanson, L. Satchell, J. D. Sauer, K. Schweitzer, J. Shaheed, F. Skelton, G. A. Sullivan, K. J. Susa, J. K. Swanner, W. B. Thompson, R. Todaro, J. Ulatowska, T. Valentine, P. P.J.L. Verkoeijen, M. Vranka, K. A. Wade, C. A. Was, D. Weatherford, K. Wiseman, T. Zaksaite, D. V. Zuj, R. A. Zwaan

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

114 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Trying to remember something now typically improves your ability to remember it later. However, after watching a video of a simulated bank robbery, participants who verbally described the robber were 25% worse at identifying the robber in a lineup than were participants who instead listed U.S. states and capitals—this has been termed the “verbal overshadowing” effect (Schooler & Engstler-Schooler, 1990). More recent studies suggested that this effect might be substantially smaller than first reported. Given uncertainty about the effect size, the influence of this finding in the memory literature, and its practical importance for police procedures, we conducted two collections of preregistered direct replications (RRR1 and RRR2) that differed only in the order of the description task and a filler task. In RRR1, when the description task immediately followed the robbery, participants who provided a description were 4% less likely to select the robber than were those in the control condition. In RRR2, when the description was delayed by 20 min, they were 16% less likely to select the robber. These findings reveal a robust verbal overshadowing effect that is strongly influenced by the relative timing of the tasks. The discussion considers further implications of these replications for our understanding of verbal overshadowing.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)556-578
Number of pages23
JournalPerspectives on Psychological Science
Volume9
Issue number5
Early online date17 Sept 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17 Sept 2014

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Funding for participant payments was provided to individual labs by the Association for Psychological Science via a grant from the Center for Open Science.
Acknowledgements
Geoff Cumming, Daniël Lakens, Joanne Yaffe, and John Protzko all provided helpful guidance on the choice of a meta-analytic approach. Chris Meissner, Maryanne Garry, Robert Michael, and Kim Wade spotted the erroneous task order in the protocol for RRR1 and prompted a second replication study for this manuscript. Maryanne Garry and Chris Meissner both reviewed the protocol for RRR2 to ensure that it matched the parameters of Study 1 from S&E-S. Chris Meissner, Kim Wade, and Robert Michael provided feedback on a preliminary draft of the manuscript, and Meissner also provided the data he had compiled for the Meissner and Brigham (2001) meta-analysis for reanalysis. Thanks to Brian Nosek and Jeffrey Spies for their assistance with the registration process at Open Science Framework and for making it possible for us to use OSF as the home for all materials for Registered Replication Reports at Perspectives. Finally, and most importantly, thanks to Jonathan Schooler for his cooperation in developing the protocol and for his input and assistance throughout the process.

Keywords

  • eyewitness
  • lineup identification
  • recognition memory
  • replication
  • verbal overshadowing

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